Mike Riversdale

A post about us humans, from the history of us to how we are all thinking about the world today. Ancient DNA Reveals Most Europeans Had Dark Skin Until Just 3,000 Years Ago by Tibi Puiu, November 25, 2025 Reconstruction of the 10,000-year-old “Cheddar Man” from Britain. Credit: Channel 4. By analyzing the genomes of 348 individuals who lived between 45,000 and 1,700 years ago, researchers have uncovered a surprising truth for some: for most of Europe’s history, the majority of its inhabitants had dark skin. Only around 3,000 years ago did lighter skin tones become dominant. The Map of Human History by Keir Clarke, November 22, 2025 The Globe of History is an ambitious new interactive map that attempts to visualize the entire sweep of human history - 6,000 years of wars, inventions, discoveries, philosophers, political upheavals, and more - on a 3D globe. Each historical event is mapped using data derived from Wikipedia, resulting in a global atlas of human events that you ...

Always ask about that fancy new theory someone is dressing up as science: Could we test this? Are the individuals behind this theory updating their claims with new findings? Is this consistent with our broader scientific understanding of the world?

Life has so much to be going on with eh, so much easier to just go with the defaults and keep trundling on. Technology defaults, sure, whatever app company. Relationship defaults, I dunno, this is what's meant to happen, no? Society defaults, yeah, I s'pose it's what we all do. Behaviour defaults, um I've always been like this, isn't everyone? We just accept what we're given and move on. Don't. The first time you exhibit some behaviour, fall in love, install an app, or get asked to move on, stop, check the defaults, and if needed, change them to suit yourself. It's a right royal pain to have to do it every single time, but believe me it'll make your life so much easier in the long run.  With tech the default settings should be off (they won't be). Check them all to see that they are off, or what you want. Every time the app / tech updates (including new device, full system update, new connection etc) check the defaults as they will have likely ch...

[also my initial post highlighting tax and finance (July 2026):  The Grounds For Voting Green ] A breakdown of 10 policy areas outside of tax and finance (see previous post ), detailing the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s proposals , independent sector context, and how these changes directly impact you because, as they say, "For all of us". Economy & Workplace Rights 1. Renewable Energy The Greens propose launching "Kiwipower" and updating building codes to rapidly invest in renewable energy. The New Zealand Green Building Council confirms that cutting red tape for energy efficiency directly lowers running costs and improves grid resilience. Think about the anxiety of opening a massive winter power bill. The Greens' push for renewable energy and their Kiwipower initiative is designed to take that stress away. By shifting power back to the community and away from corporate monopolies, your hard-earned wages stay in your pocke...

Love me a slice of science , especially gravity, entropy, and the big questions with enlightening answers. New quantum gravity theory links entropy, dark energy, and life via ScienceDaily, 20 July 2026 A new theoretical study offers a possible explanation for how the Universe can grow more complex without violating the second law of thermodynamics. Using a quantum gravity framework called Gravity from Entropy, mathematician Ginestra Bianconi found that the Universe’s total entropy may rise as space expands, even while entropy within each unit of volume falls. That decline could leave room for galaxies, stars, planets, and life to form locally amid an overall increase in cosmic entropy. I've read it a couple of times and I'm gonna need a couple more just to get my head around it - it involves gravity, and spacetime, and what is becoming my favourite thing that I hear underlying everything, entropy . Einstein’s “Greatest Blunder” May Be Breaking Cosmology by Paul Sutter, July 20,...

What a wonderful old story about Kiwi  Andrew Oliver and Fonterra to warm the cockles of your heart! Fonterra changes tanker schedule for #1 fan by Indira Stewart, 8 May 2019 "A big outfit like Fonterra doesn't have to do that. They simply could've ignored the request but no, they came through. And we're very grateful." Kevin said the 15-minute visit to the farm to drain its milk vats every evening is a special treat for the tanker drivers on that shift. "We like to come out here. You realise that you're lucky, how lucky you are that we're able to do this. If we can make Andy's day well, hey that's the icing on the cake." Sad to read that in July 2025, Oliver died of pneumonia at Waikato Hospital, at the age of 41. He was buried in a coffin printed with images of Fonterra milk tanker trucks.

Walk into a bookshop OR go to a bookshop website Choose you book Hand over your money The challenge is step 2, always step 2, the choosing of the book that fits the mood of the moment. 10 Fantasy Books With The Best Lore by Tom Russell, Jul 20, 2026 While there are countless incredible literary fantasy worlds waiting to be discovered, some authors stand apart because of the sheer depth of the histories and mythologies they have created. For readers searching for a world they can truly lose themselves in, these books are some of the most immersive and lore-heavy experiences fantasy has to offer. Worldbreaker Saga  by Kameron Hurley (2015-2020) Between Earth And Sky Trilogy  by Rebecca Roanhorse (2020-2024) A Song Of Ice And Fire Serie s by George R.R. Martin (1996-Present) Realm Of The Elderlings Series  by Robin Hobb (1995-2017) War Of Light And Shadow Series by Janny Wurts (1993-2024) Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett (1983-2015) Stormlight Archive Series by ...

A lot of websites will complain that I am not allowing ads, the pop-up below is one of the more polite ones. The thing is, I am NOT blocking ads, I don't mind ads tbh, show ads if it keeps you in business, I get it, someone has to pay for the service. However, I am blocking tracking (both via Vivaldi browser and DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection on my mobile devices) as I don't want you, or whoever you are using to serve up ads, to track me across the web - it's really none of your business. Listen, the TV stations shows me ads, but they don't / can't track me. I know the ad services would love to be able to, but I'm down with seeing ads without being tracked - although I let you into a little secret, I mute ads on TV. So, be like the TV stations, show ads as you see fit, but I'm not gonna let you track me. And we all know what you mean when you say, "Ads aren't being displayed", that's your call nothing to do with me, what you mean is,...

Life is hard, fragile, breathtaking , and can sometimes come at us fast. We all have choices, even when we believe we don't. This has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn in life. During the times the brain has gone wobbly , when events seem to be conspiring against me, just as I believed I was on my own in the universe with only one path before me, I remembered I had the choice about how I thought and reacted to everything. The very phrase, "always look on the bright side of life", would annoy the bejeesus out of me, "always", "bright", ah fuck off you don't know me and what I have to put up with, just piss off with your happy clappy platitudes! In would pop the song.  I'd have a little whistle. A smile, a breath, and a relax. That fun song by Eric Idle ( created  during script writing with vocals re-recorded in a mattress fort inside a Tunisian hotel room) does actually nail it - we do have a choice: What have you got to lose? You ...

Yes, if you are lucky enough to get 2008 accommodation in Dunedin (South Island, AoNZ) you will see a total eclipse of the Sun. Same goes for Sydney . Heck, we in Papunya may see something of it. Find out where you need to be for eclipses:  https://dojo.amcharts.com/solar-eclipses/

Memory is one of the strangest abilities you possess. Your brain uses an incredibly complex biological system to preserve moments from your past that no longer exist, allowing you to revisit experiences from years ago. But memories are not always recordings of reality. In fact, every time a memory comes under the spotlight of your attention, it can melt and change a tiny bit. What exactly is a memory, how is a moment in time stored inside your brain, and why does remembering something slowly rewrite the story of your life? via the wonderful Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

If you don't know about  Sarah Wynn-Williams and her book, Careless People , then I urge you to get a copy for a number of reasons. Let's start with the opening chapter where an early teenage Wynn-Williams, a New Zealand lawyer, public policy advisor, and author, was attacked by a shark as a teenager while on holiday in Tukurua, Golden Bay / Mohua. It's quite the harrowing event and after which I imagine she wasn't afraid of bastard sharks she worked alongside at Facebook (now Meta). Of course the book is now famous for giving the low down on the internal processes, culture, and 'leadership' at Facebook (Meta), especially around: Internal guidelines on content moderation Parscale’s team also ran voter suppression campaigns. They were targeted at three different groups of Democrats: young women, white liberals who might like Bernie Sanders, and Black voters. These voters got so-called dark posts—nonpublic posts that only they would see. They’d be invisible to ...

Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein famously had many discussions / disagreements  both taking contrarian views and calling out any 'bullshit' in their hunt for the truth about reality.  Carl Sagan's 9 timeless lessons for detecting baloney by Ethan Siegel, February 10, 2026 Carl Sagan was one of the most prominent scientific figures of the 20th century, helping cofound the now-thriving field of planetary science and popularizing physics and astronomy for a generation of adults and children. His "baloney detection kit" remains, even in 2026, a masterstroke for helping guide people down the path of critical thinking, and inoculating themselves against grifters, frauds, and charlatans. Demand independent confirmation of whatever statements are asserted as facts. Encourage substantive debate from all points of view by those with substantial, relevant expertise. Don’t accept an argument from an authority because that person is an authority. Instead, judge arguments based...

He's quite the character is Mr Moore , a wizard no less, and so so utterly creative! If I could I would get actual books (paper and all that) of everything he's ever created or co-created. In the meantime here's 4 I am gonna order over the next few months ... yes, actual books! Jerusalem (2016) Employing, a kaleidoscope of literary forms and styles that ranges from brutal social realism to extravagant children’s fantasy, from the modern stage drama to the extremes of science fiction, Jerusalem’s dizzyingly rich cast of characters includes the living, the dead, the celestial, and the infernal in an intricately woven tapestry that presents a vision of an absolute and timeless human reality in all of its exquisite, comical, and heartbreaking splendor. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1: The Absolute Edition London, 1898. The Victorian Era draws to a close and the twentieth century approaches. It is a time of great change and an age of stagnation, a period of chaste orde...

Trump, his Administration, his ever changing known and hidden gang of cronies, and all those that support his thinking and behaviour never sleep, they are constantly endeavouring to enrich themselves (but only Trump ad those at the top actually get anywhere with it) and in the process fuck up the rest of the world for us all. Who pays the cost when Americans opt out of science? by Adam Frank, July 15, 2026 From this, and many other encounters, I learned that science denial is not about science — that reader and others I’ve engaged with expressed no curiosity about how planetary climates actually worked. Instead, it is about a kind of tribalism: If you identify as a member of certain groups — usually ones that have a particular political orientation — then you oppose certain kinds of science. It’s already becoming clear how the infection of science denial — of opting out of a commitment to science — is affecting the U.S. Because the current administration has embraced climate denial...